Extracts from the catalogue essay September 2003 for the planned exhibition Sybille Kreynhop, 20 Years Artistic Work

Alfred Nemeczek, Art critic and Writer
Previous Arts editor of the magazines „Der Spiegel" and „Stern"
and Deputy editor of the art magazine „art"
Current he writes regularly among others for the KUNSTZEITUNG,
publishing house Lindinger + Schmid, Regensburg

Whether the fashionable increase in the number of world-famous artists has taken contemporary art into a new era or even a golden age is emphatically not a matter for discussion here. What is clear, however, is that the inflationary growth in the number of artists recognized since 1945 by the media, academia, museums and the market has transformed the very definition of „art”. Since the 1960s in particular the consensus view of art has been expanded, revolutionized and at the same time brought into such disrepute that a museum curator recently inquired: „Is an object displayed in a museum because it is a work of art, or is it a work of art because it is displayed in a museum?”

Which only means, in essence, that today „anything goes”. But if that’s the case, then logic dictates that there must also be a legitimate place for counter-positions, which may not be entirely fashionable at present, but which are far from arbitrary. Positions that open themselves to the new in a spirit of community and compassion, yet find expression in a language, seemingly conventional, which in truth is both timeless and inexhaustible. We are talking about painting, and about an artist who has devoted herself to her painting for two decades, with never a sidelong glance at art history, styles, trends, the media, the market or competitors, and with such remarkable intensity and refusal to compromise that her development amounts to a very special case.

Or rather, to an actively planned case of good fortune. For with this exhibition staged in a variety of unusual locations the Hamburg painter Sybille Kreynhop, born in Neumünster in 1951, is presenting her life’s work for the first time: some 300 works completed in solitary hours of labour by day and night, representing approximately half of her œuvre to date. This is not the first Kreynhop show, of course, but it is by far the largest. And its significance for the artist and her public goes beyond that of conventional retrospectives, which generally take stock of a career by showing works that are already known. This exhibition contains a few known pieces, but is predominantly made up of unknown works by Sybille Kreynhop never before shown. Part premiere consciously delayed, part grande confession, the show promises exciting discoveries at every turn.

For the first time the artist is taking stock of her work in public. And presenting not only the results of her engagement with the visual image, which has been a continuous process, albeit one that has passed through recognizable stages – from the unabashed desire to communicate through painting to a concentration of technical resources on an increasingly refined and modulated subject-matter. For the first time she has also granted us an insight into the working process, starting with the initial emotion, going on to the formulation of ideas in words and drawings, and culminating in the final application of the paint to the canvas with the knife. So now we can retrace the genesis of a fiercely individual strategy unwaveringly pursued, which this exhibition sets out to define and encapsulate.

But why choose this moment to put it to the test? Kreynhop says: „Because it was time for the exhibition.” This laconic observation, dictated by the artist’s own internal timekeeper, becomes a kind of leitmotiv in the course of lengthy conversations about Sybille Kreynhop’s artistic development.

„Things have just worked out the way they have”, she says. And she adds: „It’s good, the way things have worked out.” But she doesn’t mean it in a smug or a resigned way. It’s just a statement of fact: this is how she sees her situation. Kreynhop may be a loner, but she is definitely not one of those artistic refuseniks who turn their back on the art world, current affairs and the zeitgeist as a matter of principle, because nobody takes any notice of them anyway. Sybille Kreynhop has never shunned the world and has never been afraid to engage with people. Since 1983 her Free Art has been regularly exhibited, and she is a familiar presence at art fairs. She has a devoted following of collectors, and has completed several commissions for public spaces. But she has never consciously pushed for her big breakthrough. Consequently she has not been showered with critical praise. On the other hand, she can point to an impressive list of exhibitions in smaller German and Danish galleries, in Hamburg’s St. Jacobi church, and even in a restaurant – all of which have been important for her work.

Permanent self-questioning – including a series of critical self-portraits – and the ongoing artistic investigation of the condition humaine – meaning the factors and circumstances that cause the individual to succumb or survive in the face of personal or universal disaster – have now become the central focus of an art that deploys its resources more uncompromisingly, more sparingly, and with growing mastery as time passes.

In earlier years the artist engaged with themes from the past such as the Nazi era and the persecution of the Jews. Since the first Gulf War (1991) her political interest has been focused more and more on the present. Serious injustice, abuse, crime and destiny – such are also the central themes of her picture cycles entitled „Animal”, „Child”, „Sea Creatures” and „Senses”. These picture cycles have increasingly come to replace individually titled works, and are conceived as open-ended projects. Some contain around 20 paintings, others more than 30. Her latest cycle, „Workshop”, is a meditation on a TV documentary about a Vietnamese man, Do Sanh, who was severely injured as a child during the US invasion and recently died at the age of 35 as a drug-addicted Aids victim.

Within Sybille Kreynhop’s system of intention, preparation and artistic execution, the cycles of paintings – others are called „Special Discovery” or „Tiles” – form a constant. They impose a certain discipline and determine the rhythm of the artist’s daily life. So perfectly does Kreynhop’s work exemplify the maxim formulated by the French poet and critic Paul Valéry (1871-1945) in the 1930s – „Every work combines within itself a longing, a doing, a mental image, a subject-matter” – that one might suppose she knew the quotation.

So the show promises to be not only rich in substance, but also remarkably varied – further underlining the importance that it has in Sybille Kreynhop’s long-term artistic plans. The pictures have been created in self-imposed seclusion. But her work has never been an end in itself, and now it is going on the offensive, taking up the challenge of communication. The artist is not afraid of an encounter with a large audience intent on scrutiny and inquiry. She is impatient to see how her pictures – evolved according to the rules of art and inspired by her experience of life and the world – fare in dialogue with each other and with the viewing public. She puts a great deal of trust in her public, and can imagine opening up „other dimensions” for her painting one day with interactive projects. In the Congo, for instance, „where children rule by force of arms”. She knows she must „constantly be seeking the path that leads to the heart of things, to grow at one with the universe, in order to transform words … into images, and then to see where the truth lies, and where it gets lost.”